MYO Scholarship Committee is Celebrating 19 Years!

Posted on June 26, 2018September 14, 2018

The Stewart’s Make Your Own (MYO) Scholarship Committee is proudly celebrating 19 years of helping students with their college expenses. This year, the committee awarded $360,000 in scholarship funds to 87 college-bound students in the Stewart’s family. The MYO Scholarship program provides scholarships for active employees’ immediate family members who attend an accredited educational institution. There will be 16 students graduating from college within the next year that have gone through the program!

The students selected for scholarship funds this year will be studying a variety of programs including nursing, entertainment management, education, psychology, studio art, and broadcast journalism.

Philly Dake founded the MYO Scholarship in 1999 to help parents with the rising costs of college tuition. Since its inception, the scholarship program has provided over 1,000 scholarships totaling more than $4.7 million. Philly chose the Make Your Own phrase to emphasize that although the funds provide an opportunity, true learning only occurs when students apply themselves and discover the key to Make Your Own education.

We sat down with Lanyel, she was one of the original MYO Scholarship recipients and here’s what she had to say:

When did you receive the scholarship?

I was in the original group of Make Your Own Scholarship recipients in 1999.

Where did you attend college?

Siena College

How did the MYO Scholarship process help you to prepare for college and your career?

It was the first real interview process that I went through. The process put me in the position of being in front of multiple individuals that didn’t know me personally and having to sell the reasons why I was deserving of receiving the MYO scholarship.

What is your job now?

I am a Category Manager for Stewart’s Shops. I currently handle coffee, grocery and nonfood products.

What advice would you give future applicants for the MYO Scholarship?

It’s hard to speak to the reasons why I was chosen but I feel that I had strong extracurricular activities but most of all I was honest in my essay and that honesty translated through when I was being interviewed. Future applicants just need to be themselves during their interviews and everything will fall into place for them.